Elucidation of self-renewal and commitment pathways that determine stem cell fate are of great interest, both for fundamental biology and for clinical applications in regenerative medicine and cancer therapy. Many efforts are underway to determine cell intrinsic and micro-environmental signals that govern self-renewal and differentiation, and to identify genetic perturbations in these pathways that may result in tumourigenesis. By 2006, progress in unravelling cellular and molecular mechanisms can be expected to begin informing new strategies for clinical intervention. This conference will bring together stem cell biologists in the areas of self renewal and tissue diversification, the stem cell niche, cancer stem cells and cell therapy, to discuss the biological and clinical significance of normal and malignant stem cell function. [unreadable] [unreadable]